Display devices are used to generate display images which are displayed inside afocal optics devices (e.g., rifle scopes, binoculars, spotting scopes, and rangefinders). Such optics devices broadly include an objective lens and an ocular (or eyepiece) lens in a spaced-apart relationship along an optical axis. The objectives lens gathers light, including light reflected from a target, and focuses the gathered light on a focal plane to create an optical image at an intermediate point on the optical path, and the ocular lens magnifies this optical image for a user of the optics device.
Currently most display technologies use a beamsplitter located behind the objective lens at the focal plane and on the optical axis. While a beamsplitter is a convenient solution, it suffers from several disadvantages including that it uses valuable space inside the optics device, it reduces the overall light transmission of the optical system, and it can impart a false color to the display image. Other such display technologies use optical combiners, wherein the display image is not sent through the objective lens but rather is directed from the display device to a point on the focal plane or between the focal plane and the ocular lens.
This background discussion is intended to provide information related to the present invention which is not necessarily prior art.